Snydale Colliery

1863 to 1965

by Irvin Saxton

Many years after the event John Rhodes recounted how he had a conversion in a railway carriage which led him to leave Drightlington and buy Snydale Hall and estate. In 1851 he put down a borehole and at 129 yards struck water and gas. The water soon stopped flowing but the gas continued to be emitted for a while and could be lit or put out easily. It became known as "The burning well" and became a tourist attraction while it lasted. It became so famous it was featured in the Illustrated London News which published this drawing. 

John Rhodes decided in 1863 to sink shafts for a colliery to be called Snydale Victoria. He was in partnership with a Mr Dalby but there is no information about him.  In 1879 The cages collided in the shaft and the winding rope broke. One cage fell to the bottom of the shaft killing all eight men in it.  An 1890 map of the colliery shows it was only a small undertaking.  In 1897 the colliery was bought by the Henry Briggs and Son company to replace their Streethouse Colliery which was worked out. 

In 1922 the colliery employed 702 men and boys underground and 209 on the surface. It was only a small undertaking and the maximum output was 185,000 tons of coal in 1953 and 1954. Ten years later it was worked out and it stopped coal production in August 1965. The coal preparation plant remained operative to help out at Ackton Hall colliery during reconstruction works. Demolition began in 1971. By 1994 the buildings had all gone and the muckstacks were being cleared away. Eventually the site was returned to how it was in the 1860's.